Ask great questions Tips to get the best videos at professional events.

You understand the video booth concept (if not visit here). How do you make it work for your organization? What questions should you ask? What guidance should you offer participants? The key: think about your goals and keep it simple.

ABOUT THIS ADVICE

Every organization’s needs are different. Below are recommendations for common scenarios, but not every scenario. If you find your needs are different please contact us. We offer advice and customization to meet the needs of any organization.

WHAT WORKS BEST: EMOTION

Video is able to display a huge range of human emotion from jumping-for-joy excitement to subtle expression. Viewers engage with and respond to videos that have some sort of emotional content.

WHAT WORKS BEST: STORIES

Video is an excellent medium to tell stories. The key is to give people an excuse to tell a story that’s relevant fits with your goal. Give people the opportunity to speak and most will. There is no secret trick to this and you don’t need an academy award winning screenplay to get powerful responses.

START BROAD

A good strategy to form your questions to start with big & broad questions you could ask when using SpeechBooth and to then narrow it down. If you craft a broad question, you give participants the opportunity to tell their story vs restricting what they want to say.

START SMALL

SpeechBooth is built to ask 1-3 questions (of course more questions are possible, just ask us). In reality, one good question beats 6 ‘less good’ questions. With only a few questions, what you wind up with video messages that are centered around a simple theme and this makes for great video compilation. Its tempting to want to maximize all the questions you can ask, but its also helpful to understand the limitations what your participants will be able answer and how those responses will appear in the final video. Focus on a few questions.

TYPICAL QUESTIONS

We get asked this a lot. What are typical questions for SpeechBooth? There isn’t typical, because every organizations need are different and should be!

How has (product/organization/etc) has helped you (grow your business/improve quality of life/etc) this past year?

What (new things) are you doing this year with (product)?

What (industry trends) are helping you (succeed) with (product)?

What (challenges/objectives) is (your organization/you) looking to solve this year with (product)?

Where do you think (product/industry) will be headed in the next (6 months/5 years)?

THE GOAL BEHIND YOUR QUESTIONS

Consider the objective behind each question you’ll ask. Your goal is to get people talking about a topic that you can then build a brand message around. It can help to be specific, but not to the point where it stifles people’s natural desire to tell a story. People have a natural desire to share. Get them talking about something your organization is passionate about.

SPONTANIOUS: ‘Video Gems’

‘Video gems’ are what when participants leave an interesting, unexpected video. This may be heartfelt, funny, or emotional. These moments are what we live for. These moments speak to us and elevate the content. To get more of these moments write more open questions that offer room to be spontaneous vs than trying to direct and limit the responses. The perceived ‘risk’ of getting videos you don’t want always be edited away.

FINAL ADVICE

There is an art asking a great question, but you don’t need to be an artist to do it. If you aren’t sure, you can always ask someone who you might think has a knack for it. Of course you may always, ask us if you want–we’ve got some experience. When in doubt, a good place to start is the mission statement of your organization or your project. Remember, there is no such thing as a ‘perfect’ question (or a perfect answer), but a little thought can go a long way to getting great videos!